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(No Model.)

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"PROTECTOR FOR LIGHTNING ARRESTERS. No. 258,289. Patented May 23, 1882.

( WITNESSES% INVENTOR A (WM/1a 7 BY /ATTORI?(E+T UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES T. FITCH, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HARLOW (l. PALMER, OF SAME PLACE.

PROTECTOR FOR LIGHTNING-ARRESTERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 258,289, dated May 23, 1882. Application filed March 52, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES T. FITCH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Protecting Lightning-Arresters from Moisture, Dust, Insects, &c.; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

The object of my invention is to protect lightning-arresters from moisture, dust, insects, 860., so that they may perform the office for which they are intended without affecting the working-circuits upon which they are located. Lightning-arresters as now arranged are extremely liable to become clogged with dust, insects, cobwebs, &c., which lodge between the working parts, and which, as soon 2 5 as they become moist, form a permanent connection between either the line or cable wires and the ground-wire connected with the lightning-arrester, thereby breaking the workingcircuit and completely preventing the trans- 3 mission of messages.

My invention is designed to obviate the above-mentioned difficully; and to that end it consists in locating the lightning-arrester in a recess in the under side of the cross-arm of a 3 5 telegraph-pole and providing such recess with a removable or adjustable cover, as will be more fully hereinafter described.

In the drawings, Figure l is a view of a telegraph-pole and its cross-arms, showing the 40 application of my invention thereto. Fig. 2

is an under side perspective view of one of the cross-arms, showing the location and arrangement of the recess and lightning-arrester contained therein.

Referring to the drawings, a is the telegraph-pole, and a ac are the cross-arms located thereon, all of ordinary construction.

l) b are the cable-wires, which extend from the operating room in the form of a cable, I), to the box b secured to the pole a, from which point they diverge to meet the line-wires c, as will be more fully hereinafter explained.

In Figs. 1 and 2 I have shown respectively a vertical section and an under side perspective view of one of the crossarms embodying my invention.

I have found it more convenient and desirable to locate the recess in which the lightningarrester is arranged upon the under side of the cross-arm and close to the pole 0, although it is apparent that it could be otherwise successfully located therein. (1 designates such recess, in which I have shown, by way of illustration a lightning-arrester of well'known construction, in which 0 c c c are the small serrated connecting-plates to which the cable wires 1) and line-wires c are connected to complete the circuit. \Vhere the recess (1 is located on the under side of the cross-arm these cable and line wires enter the recess through the sides of the cross-arms, as clearly shown in Fig. 1.

f is the usual conducting bar or rod, having the wire f leading from such rod f out through the cross-arm and to the ground-wire f Asis well known, the intense induced currents from electric storms, which often damage and destroy the wires, pass from the plates 0 e to the rod f, and from thence to the ground, thus preventing the destruction of the cablewires.

The lightning-arrester just described, or any other form thereof which may be placed in the recess (1, is kept perfectly dry and free from dust, insects, &c., by means of the sliding cover g, thereby precluding the possibility of any accidental permanent connection between the plates 0 and the rod f, which invariably has the effect of breaking the working circuit.

My improved arrangement of a lightning arrester in a recess of the cross-arm is an ex tremely simple and inexpensive yet very important and effective way of overcoming a very troublesome obstacle to the perfect working to the interior of such recess and a lighting of the circuit upon which a lightning-arning-arrester located in such recess, with the :o rester is located. line and cable wires suitably connected there- I clairn to, substantially as shown and described.

The combination of the cross-arm of a tele- CHARLES T. FITCH. graph-pole, provided with a recess in its under side and a removable 0r adjustable cover for such recess, with the line and cable wires lead- Wituesses OTTO HODDIOK, W. T. MILLER. 

